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Boeing Wins Race to Space

NASA doles out $270 million to Boeing and other shuttle replacement contenders.

And they're off! In the latest installment of space investing news, NASA just announced the four companies that will help it build a commercial spacecraft to replace the soon-to-be-defunct space shuttle fleet.

Doling out $270 million among privately held SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada, and Boeing(NYSE: BA), NASA is helping jump-start the shift to commercial space operations that President Obama called for last year. Boeing's said to be the biggest beneficiary, reaping a $92.3 million lion's share of the government largesse. United Launch Alliance Lockheed Martin(NYSE: LMT) is probably pleased to hear that, too.

But the biggest news here is for the smaller companies in NASA's lineup. The contract comes at a particularly auspicious time for SpaceX. According to the rumor mill, founder Elon Musk plans to have SpaceX follow its corporate sibling Tesla Motors(Nasdaq: TSLA) onto the public markets soon. And I personally can hardly wait -- unlike Tesla, SpaceX is said to be profitable.)

Here's to hoping.

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Fool contributorRich Smithdoes not own shares of any company named above -- but he'd dearly love to get in on the SpaceX IPO. You can find him on CAPS, publicly pontificating on his favorite stock ideas under the handleTMFDitty, where he's currently ranked No. 542 out of more than 170,000 members.

Author

I like things that go "boom." Sonic or otherwise, that means I tend to gravitate towards defense and aerospace stocks. But to tell the truth, over the course of a dozen years writing for The Motley Fool, I have covered -- and continue to cover -- everything from retailers to consumer goods stocks, and from tech to banks to insurers as well. Follow me on Twitter or Facebook for the most important developments in defense & aerospace news, and other great stories besides.